Ged Kearney

Ged Kearney
, new ACTU president – Former federal secretary of the Australian Nursing Federation who has succeeded
Sharan Burrow
as the public face of the ACTU. Burrow was criticised by some unionists for being too close to the Labor government, particularly
Julia Gillard
, but Burrow was a formidable networker in the labour movement and NGOs.

Kearney faces a steep learning curve and has been dropped straight into the election campaign. She wants federal Labor to show more respect for its industrial wing, saying at one stage that they had “great difficulty mentioning the word union in a constructive manner".

She’s personable but said to have a tough negotiating side. Also wants to expand the ACTU’s campaign focus from traditional IR and the workplace to health, education, climate change, tax and social policy. She’s already an insider on Labor health policy, which often takes on certain doctor lobbies, but not nurses.